limit. The observers noted average speeds of 37 miles per hour for cars and 36 miles per hour for trucks, but 23 percent of the drivers continued to drive over 40 miles per hour.[1]
By April 1942, fuel shortages were so severe in the eastern States that the Government imposed gasoline rationing, and by November 1942, rationing was imposed nationwide. This greatly diminished “non-essential” travel, but the volume of essential travel was still huge.
The mobilization of 1940–41 had shown in a startling way how dependent the United States had become on its highways for its very existence. Studies in Michigan showed that 13 percent of the defense plants received all of their materials by highway. Most of the remaining plants received at least 50 percent of their materials by highway and more than half of their outgoing products left that way. In February 1942, Commissioner MacDonald announced that only a small fraction of the 10 million workers required to man the defense plants could possibly be accommodated by the existing rail and bus transit facilities, and all the rest would have to move in private automobiles.[2] Another study in Kansas showed that 81 percent of the employees of a large aircraft factory lived more than 5 miles from the plant and 17 percent more than 10 miles away. Only 5 percent of the plant workers used public transportation; 93 percent depended on private automobiles.[3]
In the early years of the defense effort, it was generally understood that it would take time to build new highways or enlarge the old ones and that in the meantime it would be necessary to greatly improve the utilization of the existing highway and mass transit plants. To promote this utilization, the Secretary of War, in December 1940, appointed a Highway Traffic Advisory Committee composed of Commissioner MacDonald of the PRA and the presidents of AASHO, the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. The Secretary also asked that each State Governor appoint a State Highway Traffic Advisory Committee, and this was done early in 1941. The several committees then concentrated on local action plans to organize transportation at warplants so as to eliminate the need for costly road improvements.
Widespread staggered working hour programs reduced traffic peaks by 10 to 15 percent and also increased the utilization of buses and streetcars. In Atlanta a staggered hour plan had the effect of adding 90 buses to the city’s fleet of 455. Intense group riding campaigns resulted in hundreds of carpools and increased average car occupancy from two or less to 3.8, and in some cases even 4.2 occupants per car. Walking to work was encouraged as patriotic exercise, but the committees found that few workmen would walk if the one-way distance was more than 2 miles.[4]
Shrinkage of Highway Revenues
Rationing reduced not only nonessential travel, but highway revenues as well. Although nearly three million trucks and buses were produced during the 4 war years, total vehicle registration dropped by over 1.4 million as wear and tear took their normal toll, and thousands of owners laid up their cars for the duration.
The eastern States were the first to feel the financial pinch. By August 1942, Maryland gas tax collections were running $250,000 per month behind 1941. Iowa revenues dropped 33 percent in June 1942 as compared to the same month in 1941. The Public Roads Administration reported that following nationwide gasoline rationing, highway traffic dropped 35 to 40 percent below corresponding levels for 1941.
Even with the rationing of gas and automotive parts, workers at the Willow Run bomber plant in Michigan depended on private cars to go to and from work.
In some States this loss of revenue was not particularly serious since there were no capital improvement programs underway requiring large expenditures. The diminished revenues were sufficient to take
148
- ↑ J. T. Thompson, Wartime Highway Transportation Problems, Convention Group Meetings, St. Louis, Mo., Dec. 7, 8, 9, 1942 (American Association of State Highway Officials, Washington, D.C., 1943) pp. 114–124.
- ↑ Transport in War Period Dominates Atlantic States Highway Meeting, Engineering News-Record, Vol. 128, No. 10, Mar. 5, 1942, p. 368.
- ↑ Thompson, supra, note 17, pp. 114-124.
- ↑ Id.
